Very low, single-stratum, carpets of prostrate Vaccinium spp. and lichens, of windswept, mostly snowfree, localities in the alpine belt of the high mountains of the Alpine system, for the most part Vaccinium-dominated facies of the trailing azalea communities, in which Loiseleuria procumbens often accompanies Vaccinium myrtillus, Vaccinium vitis-idaea or Vaccinium uliginosum, the latter represented, as in F2.211, F2.24 and F2.2A, by the distinctive low, small-leaved, creeping, mat-forming entity variously referred to as Vaccinium gaultherioides, Vaccinium uliginosum ssp. microphyllum, Vaccinium alpina, Vaccinium pubescens, Vaccinium uliginosum ssp. pubescens.